Forum: sounding the depths of possibility

[benmiller314]

Throughout the semester, I will periodically ask you to develop proposals for a collaborative final project that will allow you to integrate – and extend – what you’ve learned about composing digital media. This is the first of those proposals. There is no minimum length.

Consider: What further possibilities of sound, or sound design, might you want to explore in connection with other people, and/or other media?

As always on the forum, replying directly to each other is optional but encouraged: just use the @ symbol to flag someone by username.

[by-lynn-priestley]

Given that my first attempt working with sound was highly fictional, I think it would be interesting to explore sound in a more grounded context like a podcast conversation. I would be interested in having a conversation with people who create art in different mediums (music, painting, etc.) about the creative process, utilizing sound in between/underlying the conversation to give listeners the sense that they are in the studio with the artist as they describe their process. I think it could be a unique way to compare art forms and the general process of creation, especially since many forms of art are not audio-based. To incorporate other media, there could be a visual component of designing a mock podcast logo.

[annaruz]

Similar to Carolyn's response, I am also very interested in podcasts. I listen to podcasts every day, and since we began this sound unit, I have started paying closer attention to the ways that editors incorporate sound. For example, the podcast "The Daily" by the New York Times always starts to play music as they are transitioning into an ad for a sponsor. It also takes skill deciding what to include and leave out of the podcast episode in the first place, and I would be interested in seeing how this process works. This would use the media of sound for a different form of storytelling than the one I am creating now for this project. This could involve making a website, social media pages, and artwork.

[paytonareed]

Creating this soundscape was really my first attempt at using any sort of sound editing software or creating a composition of sound. With that being said, I think working with music would be pretty cool but also very difficult. I've seen some videos online of people remixing two songs together or just creating beats from scratch, so that might be interesting to try.

[aer84]

I have never really had a chance to work with audio before since most of the projects focused on visuals. I found this project somewhat challenging but I feel more confident in my audio-editing abilities. I think in the future I'd like to make more soundscapes that I could listen to while I study and work. I often find myself singing to music or not being able to focus so I think these type of soundscapes would help. I have also had experience working on a podcast but I think that I could now make podcasts more interesting with these skills. When I have worked on a podcasts, we usually had services to edit the episodes. Now, I think that I could create an "alright" podcast instead of turning it over to someone else.

[jackie216]

One of my favorite types of media to consume is the short animation film. I think it can be very simple in concept but has an enormous capacity for storytelling. And since I dabble in drawing, I think that once I feel more comfortable and more efficient in Audacity, I could write a short story (something akin to a children's picture book or even a narrative ballad poem) and record myself reading it like an audiobook but also create a soundscape that played as I read to create a more immersive experience; I could design/draw pictures to go with it. If I could integrate all this into an interactive website, I think that could be very cool. But based on my very limited experience with imovie and garageband and now audacity, pulling this off is probably much more complicated and difficult to pull off than expected so I think it would be a good idea for an ambitious aspirational final project.

[TBrusilovsky]

Somewhat in a similar vein to what someone else wrote above, I quite like the idea of a soothing, multimedia relaxation type thing. Quite music, nature sounds, and maybe some of those cool fractal animations or something to that end that plays to the music.

[cmgo412]

While I have some experience with sound design from my interest in film and videography, I've never made a project based entirely on sound. In that way, I think that creating this soundscape narrative forced me to recognize the possibilities of sound and how it can supplement a narrative just as well as a visual component can. I think, however, it would still be interesting to incorporate some footage with the soundscape because sound design is usually done after filming is completed and not before. I could also potentially create a silent short film that would rely heavily on audio to communicate the plot rather than dialogue. Both sound and visuals complement each other well so it would be cool to explore how I can integrate them into one final project.

[boredhero]

This was my first time ever making a project entirely using sound. To be honest, it was a bit challenging. I ended up recording way more audio than I needed and then I spent a lot of time nitpicking editing things like the sound of my breathing out of those recordings. I'd like to explore audio again in the context of a larger project that isn't just audio. Maybe a small narrated RPG or something like that.